


Teething Troubles

by Frangipanidownunder



Category: The X-Files
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-11
Updated: 2019-02-11
Packaged: 2019-10-26 02:46:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17737547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Frangipanidownunder/pseuds/Frangipanidownunder
Summary: Family fluff: baby2 is teething so she’s grumpy and doesn’t sleep, resulting that Mulder Scully and Jackson don’t sleep either and everyone is on edge.





	Teething Troubles

Mulder hadn’t even had a chance to close his eyes when Esther launched into furious howling again. Third time in four hours.

“Teething is excellent birth control,” he said, pushing himself up and listening to the groan and creak of every joint and ligament in his body.

“If only they told you about it in Sex Ed,” she said tightly. “Showing a bunch of horny teenagers how to put a condom on a banana is probably the wrong approach.” She bunched the pillow around her ears and Mulder padded to the nursery.

Jackson stood outside, arms wrapped around his chest, shoulder leaning on the doorjamb. “She’s in pain.“

“No shit, buddy.” Esther was prostrate face turned to the door, fist stuffed in mouth. Her eyes were squeezed shut but her cheeks were wet with tears, her arm shiny with drool. 

“What God would see such pain for babies cutting teeth, especially when you just end up having them ripped out with pliers later in life?”

“Don’t let your mother hear you talking like that,” Mulder said, bringing the sobbing infant to his chest. Her legs pumped up and down in anger.

“Too late.” Scully pulled her robe tighter around her waist and sighed. “And if you look after your teeth, you won’t need them taken out.” She patted Esther’s rounded back, palmed her hair, smoothing it down.

“Four minutes,” Jackson said. “That’s all it takes.” Scully snapped her head back to him. He held his hands in surrender, smirking. “Brushing, Scully. I meant brushing. Two minutes, twice a day.”

Mulder chuckled as he waltzed Esther around the room. “Put in those four minutes and you get rewarded for life.”

“Mulder,” Scully warned, taking the baby from him. Jackson grinned, the knowing smile Mulder recognised as his own. “Jackson, can you get the teething gel.”

“It doesn’t work,” he replied, slouching back against the wall. His hair was mussed, his eyes smudged with tiredness. In the shadowed light, he looked so much like the younger version of himself, worn down with fatigue but still standing. From the back, with her hair pulled into a messy ponytail and her white robe a little like surgical scrubs, Scully looked like her younger self, pacing the floor in pursuit of answers.

“Just get it,” he said and watched Jackson slope out of the room. He turned to Scully. “He’s right, Scully. It doesn’t work. And neither does the infant Tylenol, the Ashton and Parsons powders, the amber teething necklaces…”

“So what do you suggest, Mulder?” The note in her voice was pure frustration. Her eyes were red-rimmed, shoulders hunched, chin taut. She looked like he felt, like a rubber band at full stretch.

He rested a hand over her shoulders and nuzzled into the side of her neck not taken up with their grouchy daughter. Esther’s profile was developing and she looked so much like Scully. In a quiet moment, where she looked like she might just fall asleep, he experienced such a profundity of love that his whole body felt heavier. Then her nose twitched and her eyes fluttered and she let rip with wracking sobs. Spit flew over his face as she rooted for her hand. Her chin was mottled with a red pinprick rash that was beginning to scab over. He ushered Scully to the rocking chair.

“Maybe she’s hungry?”

“She’s not,” Scully snapped.

“Nappy change?”

“She’s dry.” 

“Can I…?”

“No.”

Jackson arrived with the gel, handing it to Mulder just as Esther arched her back on the upside of a wail that sent her head crashing into Scully’s jaw on the downside. Scully yelped and stood up. Jackson took his sister. Scully clutched her chin and cursed into her hand. Mulder nodded to the chair and Jackson sat down gingerly, holding the baby out at arm’s length. She wriggled and wailed and Scully moaned and groaned. 

Mulder opened the tube, holding it out to Jackson. “What do I do?” 

“Put it on your fingertip and rub it over her gum.”

“I can’t…” The jelly spilled out of the nozzle, onto Mulder’s hand and Jackson’s fingers.

“Do it,” Scully said, opening her grasp on her jaw wide enough for the order to be received loud and clear.

Jackson propped his sister on his lap, head crooked in his elbow and on the next cry, he put his finger gently into her mouth. Esther clamped down and his eyes widened in surprise. Mulder turned to Scully, bent over in pain. 

“Show me,” he said, lifting her chin in a scene all too familiar to them. A bruise was blooming and when she opened her mouth, he saw blood. He put his gel-covered finger onto the sore gum and rubbed. 

Scully pressed herself harder into his chest and suckled on his finger. Mulder looked over her head, and smiled at the sight of Jackson snoozing in the rocker with his now sleeping sister, finger firmly in her mouth.

That weighty feeling settled around his shoulders as he enjoyed the peace. For now.


End file.
